Swarms or hive: Know the difference

Ever since a recent news story aired about honeybees colonizing the wall of a home in Monroe, our office has been receiving a lot of calls about honeybee swarms. Only these haven’t been swarms. They’ve been full-blown hives. There is a difference. Swarms are usually observed in spring and are a natural behavior of honeybees. The queen of an existing hive leaves, taking a portion of worker bees with her, and finds a new location for a new hive. Oftentimes, the swarm lands in some innocuous place like a tree branch. But occasionally, the swarm temporarily lands on a car bumper, a mailbox, or on the side of a utility building. And, seeing so many stinging insects in one place can be disconcerting to most people even though the bees are relatively harmless when they’re swarming. The main goal of the worker bees is to protect the queen. A beekeeper can catch the swarm and remove it so both bees and humans are safe.

A hive, however, is a structure the colony sets up house in. Workers draw and fill comb, forage for nectar and pollen, and raise brood. The queen lays eggs, one per cell. Sometimes, honeybees find their way into the wall of a house. If they stay for some time, an entirely new set of problems arises. Simply spraying the bees isn’t the answer for two reasons. First, agriculture’s need for these pollinating insects has never been higher. Second, it’s one thing to get rid of the bees, but the wax comb and uncapped honey they leave behind will attract a variety of other pests such as ants, roaches, and wax moths. The LSU AgCenter can refer homeowners to someone who specializes in nuisance wildlife removals. This service is labor intensive, carries risk, and is not free.

Kerry D. Heafner is Assistant Extension Agent and Northeast Regional Horticulture Coordinator for the LSU AgCenter in Ouachita Parish. He can be reached at 323-2251 or kheafner@agcenter.lsu.edu.

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